Tomato Plant Identification

May 29, 2009 3:24 PM

I found some tomato plants growing wild in my back yard in February. I transplanted them to a safer location, and now one of them is about five feet tall (and going). Help me identify the tomato variety?

I'm pretty sure it's a tomato plant, because it looks and smells like one. The tomato plant is not bushy at all. It grows in a single stalk going straight up, with leaf-branches coming off every six inches or so, and it has about three flower clusters. Here's a picture (it's rising above a beefsteak tomato bush I unwittingly planted too close to it). This tomato plant seems a little unusual, because most all other tomato plants I've seen grow kind of haphazardly, with branches and stalks kind of sprouting everywhere. The mystery plant one is a single, symmetric, organized stalk.

I first noticed the 'wild' tomato plants when they were about as tall as my finger, and almost mistook them for weeds. I've grown emotionally attached to them, and I'm very curious as to what kind of tomatoes this thing will sprout (if any; it has not begun making any fruit). Any help identifying them would be awesome. Thanks!

posted by jabberjaw to home & garden (9 answers total)

I think you're going to have a tough time identifying the plant without the fruit, beyond the general characteristics you've already given. Also if the sprouted seeds are from a hybrid tomato, rather than an open-pollinated (or 'heirloom') variety, they aren't really any specific varietal. Hybrids do not grow true from seed.
posted by OmieWise at 3:48 PM on May 29, 2009

You won't know until it sets and ripens fruit. Being a wild plant it may even be a custom hybrid that never existed before.
posted by Mitheral at 3:48 PM on May 29, 2009

Did you have tomatoes in the area last year? If so, it's probably a volunteer from one of those, either from fallen fruit or from animals eating last year's fruit / excreting seeds.

If your tomatoes last year were heirlooms, chances are it'll match one of them. If they were hybrids, god (or Monsanto) only knows which strain their seed will revert to. Don't get sued!
posted by dersins at 3:53 PM on May 29, 2009

I just moved into the house recently, and the little garden area had been resodded before I moved in. I have no idea what was growing there before. I'm guessing some animals dropped off the seeds (there are also a ton of almond seeds in my backyard, I'm guessing from the wild parrots in the vicinity).

The plant does seem somewhat pest-resistant. Now I'm secretly hoping they are Monsanto. The giant tomato stalk peeking up over my fence would be like a big middle finger.
posted by jabberjaw at 4:07 PM on May 29, 2009

About the only thing you can tell at this point is that it's an indeterminate variety and probably not a cherry/grape style, judging from the number of blossoms in the cluster. (Info on indeterminate v. determinate here.) Let it set fruit and see what you've got then.
posted by dogrose at 4:45 PM on May 29, 2009

When the resodding was done, a fertilizer called Milorganite may have been used. It is a product made from the treated sewage of the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and it has been known to contain viable tomato seeds. I have used it myself and it did in fact result in a few tomato plants sprouting. Of course, this would mean that your plants could be the offspring of virtually any type of fresh tomato sold or grown in Milwaukee.
posted by longsleeves at 10:44 PM on May 29, 2009

My money is on yellow pear tomatoes, just because out of all the tomatoes I have ever grown, those were the vines that grew the most straight-up crazy stalks before they flowered.

But I would be happy to be wrong, tomatoes are my favorite garden items and it's fun to see all the interesting varieties.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 7:57 PM on May 30, 2009

Here's an updated photo. Unfortunately, probably not yellow pear tomatoes. Bummer.
posted by jabberjaw at 7:45 PM on June 12, 2009

Lo and behold, they were just plain old cherry tomatoes. Thanks!
posted by jabberjaw at 5:27 PM on July 16, 2009